Holding Out for a Hero
by SophieDevereauxtoo
Summary: Written for a song prompt challenge. JJ has been kidnapped. She needs to figure out how to keep herself and her fellow captive alive until they are rescued


JJ squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the horrors of the last hours. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't push the pictures out of her mind.

The day started normally enough, well as normal as things get for the BAU. They'd been in Portland for almost a week, looking for the kidnapper. The case was not going well. They were having a particularly difficult time pinning down the unsub and his motives. His victims were all women but, besides that, there seemed to be no pattern and no point. Seven women had been kidnapped from all over Multnomah County. Race, age, socio-economic status. Nothing made any sense. The first, a white college student from Portland State University. She was held for 2 days and then released. Besides being terrified, she was not harmed in any other way. 4 days later, an African American grandmother from a middle class neighbourhood in SW Portland. A 48 year old teacher hiking near Multnomah Falls, a 26 year old mother in NE. A Japanese woman from the airport. A teen from Lloyd Center Mall.

All of the women have the same story. They were grabbed and shoved into the back of an SUV. Blindfolded. Never saw their attacker. Tied up in a basement. And then released in various parts of town. Besides being hungry and dehydrated, none were harmed in any way. None of it made any sense and the team was having a devil of a time getting a profile on the culprit. Until now.

JJ, Emily and a handful of female police officers had been wandering around the places where women had been previously attacked, hoping the unsub would retrace his steps looking for new victims. JJ had been working Portland State.

The University is situated on the edge of downtown Portland. With no campus housing, most students walk or take public transportation to and from the school making it difficult to patrol its borders. It would be ridiculously easy to grab a student from one of the busy streets surrounding the campus without being noticed.

JJ was walking from the admin building to one of the popular coffee shops bordering the school when she felt something grab her hair. Before she knew it, she had a fabric grocery store bag over her head and was being thrown into the back of a car, her hands and feet being bound with zip ties. It was over in less than a minute. She never had a chance.

She tried to memorize the turns and distances the car traveled, however with her unfamiliarity with Portland streets and the circuitous route her abductor took, she was completely lost. She struggled as best she could but it didn't take long to walk her to the basement of a dank building and tie her hands and feet to a rickety office chair.

He takes the bag from her head and JJ squints as her eyes try to adjust to the sudden light. In front of her stands a man, mid 40's, bald but for a few hairs combed from behind his ear and over his shiny pate. He is tall, possibly 6'4" or more and has a significant beer belly protruding out from under his dingy white undershirt. He grins at her, showing several gaps between his rotting yellow teeth.

"Welcome Ms. Jareau" he snarls. "I've been waiting for you."

"What? Why? Who are you?" she stammers.

"Not your business. I'll tell you what you need to know. When you need to know it."

She narrows her eyes. "You've kidnapped these women. Why?"

He laughs. "I would think that would be obvious by now Jennifer Jareau."

"It was a trap? You lured us to Portland to get to me?"

"See, you're a smart girl," he says with a wink and a smarmy grin.

He turns to leave and JJ yells after him, "Wait!" He didn't.

Several hours later, she hears his car return. She braces herself for what might come next but she is totally unprepared. The man steps heavily down the stairs to the basement dragging another woman wearing a bag over her head.

"No!" JJ cried. "You have me. You don't need her. Let her go. Please? I'll do whatever you want. Just let her go!"

He works to tie the struggling young woman to another chair then turns to JJ. "You're right about one thing. You will do what I want." He wipes the sweat from his brow with the bottom of his filthy shirt and then, with another creepy smile, ambles back up the stairs.

JJ tries to talk to the other woman.

"Hey. I'm Jennifer. What's your name?"

A muffled "Kathryn" was her answer.

"Hi Kathryn. Are you OK?"

The other woman nods.

"Ok Kathryn. We're going to get out of here. I've got friends. They're looking for me. They'll find us. It won't take long. I promise. I won't let anything happen to you. OK?"

Another nod.

They sit and wait, JJ occasionally offering platitudes to Kathryn and trying to devise some sort of plan to get them both to safety. After several long hours, their captor returns. It's obvious he's been imbibing and JJ tries to quickly figure how to use that to their advantage. He sets the half bottle of cheap whiskey on the workbench along the back wall and picks up a hunting knife. He turns toward Kathryn with a sneer. JJ starts to plead with him again.

"Please. Don't. You don't have to do this. I will do what you want. Just please don't. She hasn't seen your face. You can let her go like all the others. I'll stay. Just let her go."

He doesn't answer her, just steps to Kathryn and lays the cold steel against her arm. Kathryn stiffens with a small scream as he drags the edge along her skin, watching intently as beads of blood emerge. JJ begins to struggle hard against her bindings as he moves his blade to Kathryn's leg. After drawing a line there, he turns to JJ.

"I don't want anything from you Jennifer. I just want you to watch what I do to her."

"Why?" JJ cries. "What have I done to you?"

He whirls around.

"You know what you did! You know exactly what you did!"

"I don't. Tell me. Please. Tell me and I will make it better."

"You can't make it better! You can't do anything! You ruined my life and now I'm going to ruin yours!"

"Do it then! To me! Let her go! She's got nothing to do with this! You have me! You don't have to do this! Tell me what it is that you want?"

"I want my son back. Can you do that? I didn't think so. You killed him. You killed him in cold blood. Now I'm going to kill her and there's nothing you can do but watch. You will watch her die. Just like I had to watch him die. You forgot about him but you will never forget her."

JJ tries to blink away her tears, her brain racing, trying to think of anything she can do or say to save the woman next to her.

"I remember" she lies. "I remember him now. It was a mistake. My mistake. Punish me. I deserve it. She's innocent. Like your son. Don't be like me. You're better than me. Let her go. It's only me you want."

He rips the bag off of Kathryn's head and touches the blade to her neck. JJ watches in horror as blood begins to drip the length of the blade and onto the floor. He turns back to JJ with a sneer.

"Not yet. I want you to think about this. What I'm going to do to her."

He grabs his bottle of whiskey and, after taking a big swig, stumbles back up the stairs.

JJ takes a good look at the woman being held with her. She's young. Very young. No more than 25. Her blonde hair is long and the end of her pony tail is stuck to the trickle of blood on her neck. Her eyes are wide with terror but she doesn't seem to be injured except for the small cuts.

"Are you OK?" JJ asks softly? Kathryn nods.

"I promise we're going to get out of here."

"How?" Kathryn asks. "He's coming back. He's going to kill me and then…" Her eyes grow wider. "It's your fault isn't it? He's going to kill me because of you."

"He's not going to kill anyone. If anything, it will be the other way around."

Kathryn shakes her head.

"Look, I've got friends. They're coming to find me. We always check in. If they don't hear from me, they will start looking."

"But how will they know?"

JJ smiles. "I have a secret. It's like a GPS. All I have to do is activate it."

Kathryn just stares at the bindings holding JJ to the chair and shakes her head. "They'll never find us. We're in a basement. The signal won't work. And besides, you're tied up. They'd have to be superheroes to know we're here." She starts crying.

JJ smiles. "That's it! Superheroes. They are superheroes. Stop crying. You remember that song, Holding out for a Hero?"

Kathryn sniffs and shakes her head.

"You know… I need a hero. I'm holding out for a hero til the end of the night. He's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast and he's gotta be fresh from the fight…"

"You mean the song from Shrek?"

JJ laughs. "Yeah. The song from Shrek. Sing it with me."

While they sing, JJ tests the zip ties binding her ankles to the chair. She's tied to a desk chair which has one center post rather than 4 legs. It gives her the chance to slide her leg to the middle and provide leverage that she wouldn't otherwise have if her legs were apart. She begins to pull and wriggle, ignoring the pain of the plastic cutting into her flesh.

The tie finally snaps and JJ is able to twist her foot and activate the transmitter hidden in the sole of her shoe. She sits back, exhausted and satisfied. Help should arrive any time now. She just hopes it happens before their "friend" makes a return appearance.

It's not long before they hear a commotion from upstairs, a loud crash and voices. Their captor comes stumbling down the stairs, knife in hand. He lunges toward Kathryn, intent on slashing her neck when JJ sticks her foot out, tripping him. He lands, arms outstretched and she quickly pulls herself close, smashing his hand holding the knife with her heel.

Another voice. "JJ?"

"Down here!"

Kathryn stares as a long shadow stretches down the stairs.

"They are superheroes!" She says in awe.

JJ laughs. "No. Just plain heroes," she says as her friend Emily appears, gun drawn. She quickly decides that JJ and Kathryn are OK and goes straight to the unsub, pulling him to standing from where he sits, cradling his smashed hand.

Outside in the street, JJ meets with her co-workers. They watch the local police load the kidnapper into their car.

"Who is he?" Spencer asks.

"Ralph Acres. I killed his son last year. This was all so he could get revenge. Against me."

"It wasn't your fault." Emily offers. "That was a good shoot. You know that."

"I know," JJ says with a sigh. "Still I can't help feeling that this is all my fault."

Emily lays her hand gently on JJ's arm. "It's not. You can't be held accountable for what an insane person does." She glances down and sees blood where it has soaked JJ's pink Nike shoes from her struggles against her bindings.

"JJ! What happened? Are you cut? You go talk to the EMTs. NOW!"

She turns JJ toward the ambulance where Kathryn sits. As JJ walks, she sings softly to herself.

Somewhere after midnight  
In my wildest fantasy  
Somewhere just beyond my reach  
There's someone reaching back for me  
Racing on the thunder and rising with the heat  
It's gonna take a superwoman to sweep me off my feet 


End file.
